Mirrored Reflections
by jaguarspot
Summary: What does a homeless, cold, mysterious shadow of a girl roaming the streets of Gotham has in common with a powerful, lethal biological weapon created by the government to take down the Justice League? Apparently nothing, but Batgirl seems to disagree.
1. Chapter 1

**Mirrored Reflections**

A girl was roaming around the dark alleys of Gotham city. She looked to be around 17 years old. She was wearing a blue sweatshirt, with the hood up and obscuring her face. She walked at a fast pace, eyes darting around her, and finally settling on the window of a bakery across the street. The sign read "closed", which was really no surprise since it was 1 A.M. But she wasn't interested in the sign, she was more interested in the cold bread and pastries that hadn't been sold that day, and were still in display.

Her stomach grumbled, and the girl sighed. With one last look around her, she slowly extended her hand towards the window. It was then that a voice somewhere behind her said

"Hadn't we talked about this already?"

Startled, the girl pulled her hand back and turned around, just to find herself face to face with none other than Batgirl, one of the city's fierce caped protectors.

"Come on, I thought we had agreed that you wouldn't steal anymore. I told you if you were hungry you could just look for me. You know my usual haunts."

Lowering her head, the girl said, "I know, and thanks for the offer, but I already told you I'd rather figure my way around on my own. I'm looking for a job, so I won't have to steal anymore, that was the last time. And you know I only ever take leftovers anyways"

"It's still wrong. You know you could get food at the homeless shelter."

"I'm still underage. And even if I weren't, I have no papers. I really don't want to get into their records. Right now, I don't exist. That's fine by me."

"Do you even have a place to stay? This city can be dangerous even to you. Actually, _especially_ to someone like you. Some of the villains have been recruiting metas to do their dirty jobs." She decided she didn't even want to bring CADMUS up.

"I can take care of myself. And I have been sleeping in empty hotel rooms. I sneak in, sleep there, sometimes take a shower, and sneak out without anyone ever finding out. There's nothing wrong with that. Now if you excuse me, I have to go find something to eat." She said, rather curtly.

"Still, you should get some identity papers. You won't be underage forever. Maybe I can help you get them. Would you use your real name?"

"No, I would use my first name, but I think I should change my last name. It makes it too easy to recognize me. I was thinking something like Wolfe, or Frost. Maybe Drake."

"Maybe." Batgirl said, but discarded the name when her thoughts wandered to Tim Drake. She'd rather not create connections where there weren't any. "And if you had papers you could get a job. Perhaps as a waitress or store clerk."

"…Well, that could help, but if I have identity papers, I might be able to get something better. I'm actually pretty good with computers and mechanics"

"Computers? Hmm, I think I know just the right place. What do you say we meet again tomorrow, same time, same place?"

"You really are serious about wanting to help me, aren't you? I think this is the first time anyone cares about me in quite some time. I'm not about to turn down this opportunity. It might be just what I need to turn my life around. I'll be here tomorrow. Thank you SO much. Serioze" she said, turning to leave.

"What?" Batgirl asked, puzzled at the word.

"It means 'really' in Esperanto"

"So you speak Esperanto, the language of Hope?"

"Yeah, I picked it up from a friend. Why?"

"No reason. See you here tomorrow?"

"You bet" and with that, the mystery girl suddenly vanished. Batgirl turned to leave, suddenly deep in thought.

"Esperanto. Hmm…"

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

That afternoon, Batman entered the Batcave to find Batgirl already there, cowl down, waiting for him with a determined look on her face.

"I need a favor", she said, going straight to the point. Batman merely lifted an eyebrow, silently asking her to continue.

"You know how, since CADMUS started really becoming a problem, metas have been popping up left and right either running from them, trying to join them, created by them, or trying to join the league? Well, a few days ago I met a metahuman girl who could really use some help. She has no papers, so officially she doesn't exist. She has no money and she's been forced to steal in order to survive, which she hates to do. She told me she tried to get a job, but without papers no one would give her one. I was thinking you could pull some strings with Fox and get her a job at Wayne Enterprises tech manufacturing division or the assembly line. She told me she's rather good with machines. That way we can get her out of the streets, keep an eye on her, and give her a way of taking control of her life. I already made her some I.D. papers earlier, and I'm going to give them to her tonight. So what do you say boss?"She nervously waited for him to answer. After what felt like an eternity, he finally said "Does this mystery girl have a name?"

"Dani. Dani with an 'I'"

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

That night, at exactly 1 am, Batgirl jumped down from the roof of the bakery and looked around her to the empty street. To her credit, the young vigilante didn't bat an eyelash when Dani suddenly appeared out of nowhere, standing right in front of her.

"You came", stated Batgirl. "I told you", started Dani "I'm not about to lose what could be my only chance of ever getting a normal life. Or semi normal, at least". It was then that Dani noticed a black envelope in Batgirl's hand.

"What's that?"

"This is an envelope with all your new documents."

"Really?

"Yup, take a look", she said as she handed over the envelope. Dani took out the birth certificate, school records, passport, and medical records and started looking them over, her eyes stopping at the name. "Danielle Hope?"

"Well, you did say you were thinking of changing your last name, and since you speak Esperanto, I thought Hope would be a nice one".

"Where did you get these medical records?" She asked, knowing very well that even her vital signs were different than a regular human's were.

"I hacked into the databases of Metropolis, Gotham and Central City until I found the records of an average girl about your age and height. The pictures on the documents I got from some traffic cameras."

"Cool" said Dani, as she kept looking through the documents. Then she froze as she saw the last one. "What is this?" she asked, holding up a plastic card with her name, picture, and the Wayne Tech logo.

"It´s your new worker's pass. Starting Monday you´ll be working at the Wayne Tech assembly line. It's Mondays to Fridays. It's a safe, paid job where you get to be around machines all day. You'll get the same medical insurance every WT employee gets, and I even managed to get you temporarily into one of the apartments WT provides for its foreign workers. That way you can save all you make and do whatever you want with it sooner…" she was abruptly cut out of her rambling when Dani hugged her fiercely all of a sudden.

"Thank you Batgirl. Thank you SO much" Dani said, with a stifled voice "this is the greatest thing anyone has ever done for me".

Surprised, Batgirl awkwardly patted Dani's back until she pulled back, slightly teary eyed. "Don't worry about it Dani, it's my job to help people"

"Maybe, but you didn't have to help me this much. I promise I'll turn my life around with this"

"I know you will"

"Oh, and Batgirl? You know what I said about changing my name so it wouldn't be so much like my cousin's? Well, I've decided to change my OTHER name too."

"Really? And what is the other one going to be now?" Batgirl asked curiously. The other girl looked at her with amusement showing in her neon green eyes.

"Ella. Ella Phantom"

**I don't own anything. Special thanks to my BETA Miss Singing in the Rain**

**PLEASE REVIEW!**


	2. Chapter 2

**THIS TAKES PLACE THREE MONTHS AFTER THE LAST CHAPTER.**

Everything was chaos inside the watchtower. What had started out as a fairly normal day for the Justice League (or as normal as days get in the superhero business) had quickly turned to a high level emergency the moment they had received an urgent call from a very worried Amanda Waller. Apparently, General Eiling had broken into Cadmus' high security prison, and helped several of the prisoners escape. Among them were the few remaining mindless Ultimen clones, a failed, weaker first attempt for Doomsday, several other unfinished mutant projects, and Supergirl's clone. The prisoners had quickly gone in different directions, and tried to put as much distance as possible between them and the League.

The League had quickly sent teams after each of the prisoners, but with GL, Wonder Woman, J'onn and Superman off planet for a top priority mission, and Supergirl dealing with an earthquake near San Francisco, the League was missing some of its strongest fighters, and had had to resort to any heroes available to handle the situation.

After a few hours of tough battles, and quite some property damage, almost all of the prisoners were back in their cells, but that had cost a price. Many of the strongest heroes were injured to some degree, and the medical bay was full of people.

Mr. Terrific surveyed the situation from the monitoring station while he waited to hear from the last team. Shayera, Atom Smasher, Dr. Light, Green Arrow and Elongated Man had cornered Supergirl's clone in the Great Canyon, and had been fighting her for the past 15 minutes. Suddenly, a computer beeped signaling a transmission from Green Arrow.

"Green Arrow, this is the Watchtower. Have you managed to neutralize Supergirl's clone?"

Terrific's blood ran cold when he heard a feminine voice answer "First of all, my name is Galatea. Second, if you really wanted me neutralized you should have sent a stronger team, not the pathetic excuses for superheroes that you sent. And third, you better tell that brat Supergirl to come and face me before I get bored and take it out on your little friends here. You may want to send some backup if you want it to be a challenge though. She has 15 minutes." Then the line went dead as she no doubt crushed the communicator she had taken from Arrow.

With sweat running down his forehead, Mr. Terrific set a timer for 15 minutes and opened a new communication line to inform Supergirl of the situation.

**O-O-O-O-O**

Down on Earth, Batman had just arrived into the Batcave after dealing with Joker's new evil plan, which had kept him from helping the League with the prison break. He found Batgirl on the computer, apparently looking into some files on the Penguin. He walked over to the computer and, sensing his urgency, Batgirl wordlessly stood up and went to "check" on her motorcycle in order to give him access to the machine and some sort of privacy, while she was still close enough to listen in.

Batman lost no time in calling the watchtower to check on the situation, which should be taken care of by now.

"Watchtower, this is Batman. I want a report on the Cadmus situation."

"Batman, this is Terrific. We have a problem. Exactly two and a half minutes ago, we got a call from Supergirl's clone. She managed to defeat and capture the team of Leaguers that we sent after her. She demanded Supergirl to go and face her within the next 15 minutes, now 12, or she would start hurting the Leaguers. I already called Kara, but she was dealing with that earthquake in San Francisco, and still needs a couple of minutes to wrap things up. I'm arming a team to back her up, but most of the Leaguers are hurt from earlier. And Superman and the others are still not back from their mission. Flash has a concussion and a sprained ankle, and Shayera was with the team sent after the clone. That makes you the only founder left. Please, tell me you have some sort of plan", Mr. Terrific all but begged.

Batman opened his mouth to answer, but Batgirl beat him to it.

"I do"

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

Several drivers hit their brakes and cursed loudly when Batgirl's Batcycle sped past them and ran a red light. Batgirl, however, didn't really care at the moment. There were other things in her mind, such as her destination and the timer in her wrist reading 8:30 and counting backwards.

She could see her destination now. The Wayne Tech assembly line facility was getting closer.

7:49

She ran another light.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

Dani Hope was assembling something that looked a lot like a plane engine. She didn't even know that WT made planes, but then again, was there something WT _didn't_ make? It certainly didn't look that way.

She was jolted out of her thoughts when a batarang flew through the open window and impaled itself in the table next to her. Looking around to make sure no one was watching her, she picked up the batarang and looked it over. It was one of Batgirl's. Attached to it was a note with 4 simple words. "Meet me outside NOW"

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

A homeless man walked into the alley that was behind one of the many Wayne owned buildings in the city, hoping to find a quiet place to eat the sandwich a kind old lady had just given him. What he found instead was a very unusual scene. Batgirl, looking nervous and impatient, was tapping her foot and looking around her, as if waiting for someone. The next moment, a blue-eyed, raven-haired girl appeared out of nowhere. Batgirl rushed at her immediately and started talking in quick, frantic whispers. The man, unnoticed by both girls, witnessed how the newcomer's face changed as she heard whatever it was Batgirl was telling her. First she seemed confused, then worried, then surprised, then angry, before finally settling for a look of determination.

That determination only increased when Batgirl showed her a timer in her wrist. One that only had 4:05 minutes left. The blue-eyed girl stood straighter, squared her shoulders, and said, loud enough for the man to hear "I'm in".

Batgirl then nodded and brought a hand to her ear, saying something else right before both girls where engulfed by the bluish white light of the Watchtower´s teleporter. In the second right before they disappeared, the man could've sworn he saw two glowing white rings appear around the black-haired girl's waist, and start moving up and down her body.

In his hasty retreat, the man almost dropped the sandwich.


End file.
